The girls of summer

The Naples Rockets rally together after an evening practice at Cambier Park early in the summer All-Star season for Little League softball. The group was working toward defending their state championship title in Tallahassee.

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Rockets second baseman Taylor Manning, center, runs down a Plant City opponent during a pool-play game leading up to the state championship this week in Tallahassee. The Rockets beat Plant City in last year's final and would go on to face them again for the championship Tuesday.

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Emily Gray, 10, bottom, winces as Rockets coach Jon Strohmeyer and his daughter Savannah, 13, braid her hair before the team leaves the hotel for practice last week in Tallahassee. Stromeyer is a facial plastic surgeon and his wife Cindy, background, is a dermatologist and they met on the first day of medical school at LSU. "Hey, if I can teach you how to do surgery, you can teach me to braid hair," he tells her.

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Emily Gray, 10, tries to talk up teammate Marina Hill, 11, after Hill lays down a sacrifice bunt during the sectional game against Cape Coral July 14 in Fort Myers.

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Parent Mike Manning cheers for the girls as they play in the semifinal game against Eustis on July 25.

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Rockets third baseman Emily Gray, 10, cools down after a hard and dirty practice.

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Caroline Strohmeyer, 9, tries to catch rain in her mouth during a rained-out practice the morning before their semifinal game in Tallahassee.

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Team mothers Danette Delashmet and Lisa Hill do the team's laundry in the hotel in Tallahassee. Parents take turns doing chores and running errands in order to make things run smoothly during the trip.

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Girls from the Naples Rockets jump a row of bats as part of their conditioning. The players attended two practices a day, six days a week during the summer all-star season.

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Right fielder Kirby Joyner, left, and center fielder Marina Hill try to fit a set of headphones over both of their heads during the trip to Tallahassee from Naples. The girls rode in an RV, deemed the "Rocket Launcher" by team mothers, to the state tournament.

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Assistant coach Jeff Stepanovich, left, stands outside the bus looking at the weather while the team awaits word on when they will arrive for their semifinal game. The team practices off-site, arriving just before the game starts, as a way to psyche out their opponents. The game was eventually called because of rain and was played the next morning.

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The team sings the song "Super Freak" — their war song, picked by the coach and played before every game — to get pumped up before arriving for the final game against Plant City. The girls chanted "Pump. Pump. Pump" before that song got the Rockets rocking.

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Pitcher Jordan Nugent, 11, left, eyes a Plant City opponent as she heads toward first base in the nine-inning State Championship game Tuesday in Tallahassee. Nugent blamed herself when the Rockets lost because she made an errant throw to first base, allowing Plant City to score the winning run.

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Head coach Jon Strohmeyer talks to catcher Haleigh Ross at third base during a recent game. This is the first year Strohmeyer has coached the team. After the loss, Strohmeyer told the girls that none of them should blame themselves.